Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Inspired by Le R's recent post (see "working-class men, alcoholic" and "working-class men, familial and interpersonal problems of") and the fact that her acerbic, high fullutent wit will be missed this week, I've decided to compile a small (highly subjective) list of themes, topics, and trends I think you'd do well to avoid.

Allegories, thinly veiled

Daughters, supernaturally inclined titles including the word troubled relationships with

Now I'll have to rely on my backup plan, which is a fiction novel (per Janet Reid's new guidelines, heh!) about super-hot vampires who battle equally super-hot zombies, all while keeping their ridiculous pompadours perfectly sexy and working through their alcoholism and the angst that goes with having a romantic relationship with Nazis.

I call it "Undead Midlife Crises. And Zombies"

It's the next blockbuster! Everyone will love it! Oh- and it's part of a nine-book series, too :)

@Bethany: Sounds like Lucy and Kimberly already have it covered. I'm definitely buying copies of both of those and making them bestsellers.

In all seriousness, though, Lydia Sharp is right. You can write about any of those things and do well, so long as your take is original enough and your story well-told. Of course, this is easier said than done.

About

My name is Eric, and I work in the sales department of a publishing house. There are a lot of blogs out there that cover the agenting and editorial aspects of book publishing, but here you'll find out what happens to your book after it's been acquired.

On Fridays, recovering publishing insider Laura writes round-ups. She also posts over on Combreviations.

Tweet Tweet

We're On Twitter and Facebook!

We Won!

Top 50 Creative Writing Blog

You've got questions. That's... understandable.

Drop me a line at pimpmynovel (at) gmail (dot) com. If I think your questions/comments would be a good addition to the blog, I'll post/answer them! (With permission and full credit, of course.)